ARNAUD CONTRERAS

For 15 years, I have regularly traveled to the Sahara. Often with musicians or their relatives. They’re my first contact with the society. With the success of some of them, such as Tinariwen, Bombino orTamikrest, a small window has been opened onto their lives.
I try, by my reports and documentaries, to share what I see with them of the Sahara today, well rooted in modernity.

 Through this book, by photos and texts, I invite you on a trip with those women and men, I want to share with you what I have learned by their side. I want to show you the « Ishumar » culture, from the French, « chômeur », « unemployed ». They have their own way of life, their musical style, their fashion. They move all around the Sahara, where ever they can find a job. With them we laugh a lot, making fun of ourselves and one another, even in the hardest times.

I also want to portray the modernity of young tuaregs, arabs, songhaï, and moors who share both good and bad news through their Facebook accounts and their cell phones.

I especially want to make you discover those contemporary saharan musics, the rock and the blues, which set the scene for their wandering, for their parties, for their fights.